Robert Coalson worked as a correspondent for RFE/RL from 2002 to 2024.
Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine is rocking the centralized political system he has built over nearly a quarter-century in power. As with the collapse of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, Moscow’s weakening has energized suppressed secessionist sentiments.
The decision by Latvia's broadcast authority to revoke the license of exiled Russian TV station Dozhd for violations indicating support for Russia's war in Ukraine has unleashed an intense debate over the station – and over the views and role of Russians abroad who oppose President Vladimir Putin.
For Ukrainians, the war with Russia began nine years ago with the Maidan protests and the February 2014 events that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power. RFE/RL looks at three men whose paths took a fatal turn during those early days and who gave their lives for the cause they took up then.
After the Kremlin launched a mobilization campaign on September 21, police began sending male anti-war protesters straight to the military. So women, who were already playing a leading role in the small anti-war movement, stepped up -- despite the risks.
President Vladimir Putin and other officials have linked Russia's so-called "traditional values" with national security. As a bill that would virtually ban the mention of same-sex relationships and transgender issues wends through the legislature, LGBT citizens and activists are sounding the alarm.
Across Russia, marriages have shot up since President Vladimir Putin ordered a mobilization amid steep losses in the war on Ukraine. Many couples who were living together are making things legal after the man received his call-up notice -- in part to lock in spousal death and disability benefits.
On September 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over a ceremony to claim large swathes of Ukrainian territory as permanent and nonnegotiable parts of Russia. That move has recast the Ukraine war as a zero-sum competition careening toward some alarming possible outcomes.
Receiving the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize culminates a lifetime of human rights activism for Belarusian dissident Ales Byalyatski, who has been held in custody without trial by the government of Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka since July 2021.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin marks his 70th birthday on October 7, military setbacks in Ukraine and an unpopular mobilization could have the Russian public rethinking their approval of the longtime leader who has crushed dissent and taken the country into a war that clouds its future.
In an address marking Moscow’s attempted seizure of a large swath of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said Russia was locked in a life-or-death struggle with the United States. He ignored the realities of the war in Ukraine, where battlefield setbacks are a serious challenge to his ambitions.
Moscow seems intent on holding votes in parts of four Ukrainian regions on annexing those areas to Russia. A French ex-diplomat explains why such a wartime vote has no legitimacy under international law and is a bid by Moscow to bolster its position in the wake of Ukrainian battlefield successes.
Legendary pop diva Alla Pugacheva is not the first star to have come out against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war against Ukraine. But she is the most beloved. Can Pugacheva’s public stance energize opposition to the brutal invasion and Putin’s crackdown on dissent at home?
As Russia presses ahead with its war on Ukraine, the Kremlin is drumming up support among schoolchildren. Starting next week, students will be required to attend weekly lectures aimed at “inculcating love for the fatherland,” according to the Education Ministry.
The death of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has once again exposed profound divisions among Russians. While many revile him for purportedly destroying a global superpower, others expressed deep gratitude for the unprecedented individual opportunities his liberalizations afforded them.
Tens of thousands of Russians protested in the days following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, and thousands were detained. Six months later, only a few brave souls still protest the war, and many of them feel disheartened by their society’s indifference to what they see as barbarism.
Activists say a massive social media campaign aims to frighten Russians into abandoning the use of VPNs, which allow users to view websites that are blocked in Russia. Influencers and regional officials have made near-identical posts as the number of blocked websites in Russia has skyrocketed.
Opposition lawmaker Khelga Pirogova, who fled Russia after a criminal case was opened on charges of "discrediting the armed forces,” tells RFE/RL she left because she could not allow her unborn child to begin life in jail. "Otherwise, I would have stayed. I was ready for interrogation and jail."
Women from the impoverished regions of Buryatia and Tyva -- which have seen some of the highest per capita casualties since Russia invaded Ukraine -- are uniting to pressure officials and the military to bring their soldiers home.
Siberian scientist Dmitry Kolker was arrested at a Novosibirsk cancer ward on suspicion of treason and whisked to Moscow. After one day, he was dead. Now his family and his lawyers are looking for answers.
Stepan Oseyev, a 31-year-old career soldier from the settlement of Ust-Kiran in Russia's Buryatia region, was buried in late March after being killed in combat in Ukraine. His family and friends remember a determined young man for whom the military was the only escape from a life of poverty.
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